January 9th, 29th & March 16th, 2012:
Observatory staff gave Outreach Tours to the summit for those events where
CFHT donated a summit tour (for 4 people) to charities for silent auctions.

January 16th, 2012: Several CFHT
astronomers went to Hawaii Prepatory Academy to judge their science fair
which was held from 3:30pm to 5pm at the Village campus dining room. The
projects were set up for several days for students to view. Some of the
students were invited to the state competition as well.

January 21st, 2012: CFHT astronomer
Daniel Devost gave the public lecture at the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center in
Hilo at 7pm.

January 28nd, 2012: CFHT
participated in the Ellison Onizuka Science Day at the University of
Hawaii, Hilo from 8am to 3:15pm. Astronaut Mike Fincke hosted a session.
Interactive workshops were held for students grades 4 - 12. Click on the
images below for an enlargement.

January-March, 2012: Over the
past few months, CFHT has given meeting space to the Hawaii Island
Festival Management Committee for planning of the upcoming events on
the Big Island.

February 19th, 2012: Several of
our staff helped in the judging at the East Hawaii Division Science Fair
held at the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo.

March 8th, 2012: CFHT sent
several staff members to the Kohala Middle School Science Fair to
help with the judging. Some of the students were treated with a trip
to Washington, DC.

April 13th, 2012: CFHT hosted
a teleconference with the Anne Fitzgerald Catholic Elementary School in
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. CFHT staff members answered questions from
6th grade students about the observatory, space, and astronomy. Click on the
images below for an enlargement.

May 5th, 2012: AstroDay will
be held at Prince Kuhio Plaza in Hilo from 10am-4pm with the highlight
being on the Venus Transit which will occur on June 5th this year and
will be visible from Hawaii. There will be many booths set up in the
Mall so come and join us.

June 5th, 2012: Venus Transit:
This will be your opportunity to view an event which happens in pairs
once every 112 years on average. The last transit of Venus was June 8, 2004,
but before that, it occured on December 6th, 1882. CFHT plans to have
observational opportunities downtown in Kamuela, at 65-1238 Mamalahoa
Highway. The transit begins at 12:10 pm and will go almost until sunset.
This will be your last chance until December of 2117. We will have
telescopes set up for viewing, hopefully on a big screen, and we will be
playing the "Transit of Venus March" written by John Phillip Sousa in
1883. We will have calendars for sale and refreshments will be provided.
We will not be hosting any events at the summit of Mauna Kea
for this event and it is likely to be very crowded at the summit.

The term of the CFHT Executive Director, Christian Veillet, ends at the
end of April. On May 1st we will be welcoming a new ED, Doug Simons. Doug
is a former staff member and director of the Gemini Observatory and was
a former resident astronomer here at CFHT. He received his undergraduate
degree in Astronomy from CalTech, and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees from
the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Welcome Doug.

There are many preparations going on island wide for the upcoming Venus
Transit on June 5th, 2012. CFHT will have viewing at its Waimea office, as
will the W.M. Keck Observatory. The summit of Mauna Kea will have many people
but the NASA Edge group will be doing their podcast of the event from just
outside the IRTF building. Many of the observatories in Hilo will be hosting
viewing as will the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center. There are events also on Oahu
hosted by the Institute for Astronomy with viewing at Waikiki beach for
example. Keep an eye on the newspapers
as the event approaches and pick your place for viewing. Remember that weather
may be a factor so you will want to keep an eye on the sky. Here's hoping
the sky will be clear over the islands.

"Complex compounds, including many important to life on Earth, were readily
produced under conditions that likely prevailed in the primordial solar
system. Scientists at the University of Chicago and NASA Ames Research
Center came to this conclusion after linking computer simulations to
laboratory experiments."
If you are curious about how the building blocks for life may have been
formed in the early solar system, here is a great article from
Science Daily.

"Many of the organic molecules that make up life on Earth have also been
found in space. A University of Michigan astronomer will use the Herschel
Space Observatory to study these chemical compounds in new detail in the warm
clouds of gas and dust around young stars."

"A new result from ESO's HARPS planet finder shows that rocky planets not
much bigger than Earth are very common in the habitable zones around faint
red stars. The international team estimates that there are tens of billions
of such planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and probably about one
hundred in the Sun's immediate neighborhood."

NASA's Web of Life is tasked by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate with imparting
the relevancy and results of NASA's research. Here you will find many resources for
learning about experiments which went up in space, mining and construction on the moon
or Mars, and topics like how the human body is affected in space. There are many resources
for helping in the teaching of these and many more topics.

Here is a website written by Ricky Leon Murphy. He has compiled a great deal
of information about many different topics which I think many will find
useful. It also has many useful astronomical equations and some examples of
how they are used. I hope you have fun using this website.

Pathways to Science is a project of the Institute for Broadening Participation (IBP).
It supports pathways to the STEM fields: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
This is a great site to find science camps, undergraduate summer research opportunities,
and much more for those considering going on to graduate school. They also have a resource
which could help find funds for students and teachers to attend camps, work in a summer
program, or attend a conference.

Here are some tools which may be useful for anyone. These are only
suggestions and before spending your money on those things which have
a price, you may want to investigate it for yourself before buying and
make sure they have a return and refund policy.

Venus Transit - On June 5th, the planet Venus will transit in
front of the sun. This event begins at 12:09pm, and continues until
6:49pm. The entire event will be visible from Hawaii and many local
observatories will have viewing of the event. See above for details
of the CFHT event.

Eclipses - There will be an annular solar eclipse of the sun
on May 20th starting at 12:06 pm, to 3:39pm HST. Unfortunately we
will not see the ring of the sun around the moon from Hawaii. It
will be visible for parts of Japan, passing just S of the Aleutian
Islands (well N of Hawaii), and entering California, Nevada, and
passing over the 4 corners area and into Texas. If you happen to
be traveling to any of these areas, take the time to check out
this event. On June 3rd, 2012 there will be a partial lunar eclipse
beginning at 10:48pm, and going until 3:18am. It will be at the
greatest part of the eclipse at 1:03am on June 4th. The moon will
look like a bite was taken out of it. About one third of the
surface will enter the umbra. We should be able to see the entire
event from Hawaii if the skies are clear.

Meteor Showers - We have the Lyrid meteor shower starting
this week. It will be peaking the morning of April 21st, and the
evening of April 22nd. Best to find a dark site, and watch
toward the constellation Lyra. Predictions are for only about 20
per hour but the moon will be ideal at one day past new. Also look
for the Eta-Aquariids which will be peaking on May 5th in the
evening and morning hours. Predictions are for 60 per hour but
the moon will be full and bright hampering best efforts. The
brightest of the meteors should still be visible. On the evening
of July 28th and morning of July 29th, watch for the S
Delta-Aquariids. The moon will be just after first quarter and
will be setting for the last hours of the morning giving good
viewing of the peak which is predicted to be 20 per hour. As an
early warning, the Perseid meteor shower will be peaking on the
evening of August 11, and morning of the 12th. The moon will be
in the morning sky so again, watch for the brightest of these. As
usual predictions are for 90 per hour.
All these meteor showers are best viewed from midnight to sunrise.
Meteors should be visible for 1-3 days either side of the peak also.
For more about watching meteor showers, check out the site for
The American Meteor Society.

Comets - There are several challenging objects to find in
the sky so check out updates at the Sky Hound site:
Comet Chasing.
You will need binoculars or a small telescope to see many of
these objects.

Planets - On the evening of April 21st, look for Mercury to
be close to Uranus. Look for Mars to be close to the Moon on the
evening of May 28th and morning of May 29th. They will be closest
at 1am our time. At 8pm on June 6th, look for Jupiter close to
the Pleiades (M45). Look for Saturn and the moon close together
at midnight on the evening of June 27th. Look for double moon
transits on Jupiter at 10:55pm on July 13th, at 11:52pm and
12:54am on July 20th, and at 1:46am & 2:52am on the evening of
July 27th (actually the morning of the 28th).

Solstice - The summer solstice will occur on June 20th at 1:09pm.

All times listed above are HST unless otherwise indicated. The
link below contains many calendars
and includes a nice section on astronomical events. Check it out!

We gratefully acknowledge the following online
sources: Google Search Engine, Yahoo's Picks of the Week, and the
Science Daily.
This page is compiled by
Lisa Wells, CFHT Remote Observer
This page is designed by Tito Jankowski, maintained by Lisa Wells,
CFHT Remote Observer